Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has announced over one lakh internship opportunities through AICTE internship portal to enhance employability. The programme was launched by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Technical students as well as higher education students can apply for the internships provided by Salesforce, CISCO, and Mahatma Gandhi National Council for Rural Education (MGNCRE) among others.

Notes:
Odisha celebrates the 86th foundation day of the state on April 1, known as ‘Utkal Divas’. It is on the same day that the state became independent in the year 1936.
Utkal Divas, also known as Odisha Day and Utkala Dibasa, commemorates the struggle which gained a separate identity for the state.

Notes:
The government has decided to maintain the status quo on interest rates of small savings instruments for the April-June quarter.
The interest rate of the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is 7.6 per cent while the Public Provident Fund (PPF) fetches 7.1 per cent. Interest rates on small saving schemes are reset on a quarterly basis, tracking the movement in benchmark government bonds.

Notes:
Novaya Gazeta is Russia’s leading independent newspaper. Dmitry Muratov, the newspaper’s editor, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Ressa, from the Philippines. Muratov donated his Nobel medal to be auctioned off to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees.
The newspaper has suspended its operations after pressure from Russian authorities. Russian lawmakers passed a law earlier, threatening jail terms of up to 15 years for information deemed to be fake by Russian authorities.

Notes:
India has opened up its central government procurement market to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), under the recently-signed free trade agreement (FTA).
This step will give national treatment status to UAE companies, on a par with Indian companies, while bidding for central government tenders.

Notes:
Scientists from the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium have published the first complete human genome.
Researchers in 2003 released what was then claimed as the complete sequence of the human genome. But about 8% of it had not been fully deciphered. With this, more researches may be undertaken regarding disease-causing mutations.

Notes:
Gujarat’s Surat has become the first city in the country to get a processed steel slag (industrial waste) road.
It has been built as part of a joint-venture project by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), Union Ministry of Steel, NITI Aayog, and Arcelor-Mitttal-Nippon Steel. The slag is generated from a steel furnace in the form of molten flux material as an impurity.

Notes:
NASA and SpaceX are set to launch astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 is the fourth crew rotation mission that will carry an international crew of four astronauts on a science expedition. The mission will fly a new Crew Dragon spacecraft and will launch on a Falcon 9 booster. The spacecraft has been named “Freedom” by the Crew-4 astronauts.

Notes:
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched International Air Connectivity Scheme (IACS) scheme (International UDAN) to enhance air connectivity from certain States of the country with selected international destinations.
The State Government of Assam, Manipur and Tripura have identified routes connecting Guwahati, Imphal and Agartala with selected international destinations.

Notes:
Gangaur Festival is predominantly celebrated in the state of Rajasthan. Rajasthan Tourism Department organised the festival after two years gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The festival commenced on April 3 and continues for 18 days. The Tourism Department of the state has made special arrangements to make the foreign tourists aware of the culture of the state.